The Big Question

It’s the question everyone keeps asking. It’s a question I never quite have an answer for. No, it’s not “why do you drink milk even though you’re lactose intolerant?” (because the cookies get lonely, obviously).

It’s the question I get asked most often. It’s the one I have the most trouble answering. At every signing, and in every interview, someone asks…

“Are you going to write another book?” I started off by always saying no. Writing makes me sweaty, and tired. I had one story to tell, and perhaps only one.  Also, at some point, I thought, I should become an adult. And adults don’t travel around the country, stuffing their faces with In-N-Out Burger like I did this week (see next week’s blog for details of my CA trip!). So I usually said no. But this seemed to really disappoint people, so I started saying maybe.

By maybe, I meant simply, “I like all of the people I meet, but I still don’t know what I’d write about, and also, just to reiterate, writing makes me sweaty and tired.” People seemed to like maybe much much better, which put me in a tough spot. I had to come up with a book to at least pretend to mull over.

That was difficult.

As my Twitter followers may have inferred from my live updates, the Scripps National Spelling Bee is my Super Bowl. What does that have to do with my next book? Nothing, I would have said if you’d asked me a week ago. But I’ve been pushing ideas around in this wavy-haired head of mine (a head experiencing cymotrichus, the winning word in this year’s Bee) I came up with both a thought and a question:

The Thought: Watching the parents on the sidelines of the Bee was almost as exciting as watching the kids themselves. They spelled along silently, clenched their fists, nodded patiently- there was every possible reaction. Some seemed almost telepathically connected to their child. Others seemed worried that missing a word might break their precocious darlings break into a million pieces.

The Question: And so I wondered- what role do parents play in the lives of hyper-successful kids: kids who blossom early and do things most adults could never even dream of? What are those parents feeling as they watch their children spell toward scholarships and glory? And how did they contribute? What are some other situations, like the Bee, where this bond is sharpened and tested?

Of course, right now it’s a broad question. It may be something that only interests me, and it may only interest me for now. But if I had to write a book tomorrow, that would probably be it. It’s an unpolished idea, but it’s an idea, and that’s better than telling the kind folks at my signings that I’d rather nap than write another book.

So will I write again? I honestly don’t know. But try telling that to an assembly of 300 elementary school students.

For their sake, I’ll at least give it some thought.